UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Saudi scientist Dr. Hayat Sindi as a leading expert to support the Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM) during the upcoming UN Sustainable Development Summit at UN headquarters in New York, local media reported. Sindi is the first Saudi national to be part of a 10-member scientific panel that will work on the implementation of a new strategy titled "Transforming our World," said a statement issued by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It said the 10 members represented civil society, the private sector and the scientific community. Born in Makkah, Sindi received her school education in the holy city. She then traveled to the United Kingdom for higher studies. She was accepted to to King's College London, where she graduated with a degree in pharmacology in 1995. Sindi went on to get a Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of Cambridge in 2001. In 2012, Arabian Business ranked Sindi 19th most influential Arabs. She was also on Newsweek's list of 150 most influential women in the world that year. In 2010, Sindi was the winner of the Makkah Al-Mukaramah prize for scientific innovation, given by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal. On Oct. 1, 2012, Sindi was appointed as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for her efforts in promoting science education in the Middle East, especially for girls. In January 2013, King Abdullah her a member of Saudi Arabia's consultative Shoura Council. Sindi, a visiting professor at Harvard University, has many contributions to healthcare and biotechnology. She is the cofounder and director of "Diagnostics for All," a nonprofit institution that aims to create low-cost, easy-to-use diagnostic tools for developing markets. She also founded the company Synoptix, which developed a diagnostic tool that can detect breast cancer in early stage.
